In Christ Alone Will I Glory!

Rick Warren, Interfaith Activist: Purpose Driven Islam

Related Commentary by Puritan Lad:
Well, what else can be said about this?

Rick Warren to speak at Muslim Public Affairs Council

I fear that the title of the article “Rick Warren, Interfaith Activist” is pretty close to reality. Certainly the author doesn’t confuse Warren’s faith with Orthodox Christianity.
It’s a good sign that God’s judgment is near when leading pastors consider “interfaith” activism to be more important than Christ.
Update: Warren seems to have missed the December 2, 2007 Conference entitled “A Purpose Driven Muslim Life”. It’s good to know that he’ll make this year’s conference.
“Following the noted work of Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, from an Islamic perspective, this examination will endeavor to introduce practival steps to help discover and manifest purpose in our lives.”
For those who think I’m being nitpicky about Warren’s seeker-sensitive theology, what does it tell you when Muslims study the book for a perspective? Can you imagine Muslims doing a study on John Owen’s “The Mortification of Sin”?
Wait until Muslim children get ahold of VeggieTales.

My Commentary:
Interfaith Diaologue is a waste of time, unless Mr. Warren tells these individuals to repent of their Sin and believe on Christ. Islam has nothing to do with the true God or His Son, it is an abberation. They deny the Deity of Christ and the Deny the Sonship of Christ, therefore they are anti-Christ. Muslim, if you are reading my words, please consider Jesus and repent of your sin and believe in Him for your eternal security with God in Heaven.

“Interfaith dialog” with Islam is surrender. Warren’s outreach to the conquerers of Constantinople is not a surprise, really. He was one of the deluded “Christian leaders” who signed the apologize to Islam document last year.

just out of curiosity, how many muslims have you interacted with? (i don’t ask to shame you if you haven’t spoken with many, just curious) with the scores and scores of muslims i’ve had the pleasure of knowing, i’ve found that if you come swinging, their ears are closed and their hearts are hardened. most muslims, have 2 fists up, ready to fight when talking with ‘christians’. one fist is “you hate my prophet” and the other one is “you hate my book”. we must get them to put their fists down so that they’ll actually hear us. i’m in no way in favor of diluting god’s amazing, glorious truth but i’m very in favor of communicating that truth so that they will hear it. the principles of communication is that what the hearer hears, trumps what you say. the onus is on the speaker to make sure that effective communication is happening. i believe martin luther once said “all truth is god’s truth. in the qu’ran there are many great truths about jesus and the god of abraham, isaac and jacob. instead of engaging into a never ending apologetical exercise, why not learn what those truths are and use them to bridge to the truths that are in scripture. food for thought, possibly. praise god, that it was always be his grace that saves people and that it will always be him that opens people’s eyes, never our methods!

There is no truth about Jesus in the Quran. That’s the bone of contention here. I once heard a missionary boast of his stealth methods of evagnelizing in Muslim nations. Since Muslims reject the Bible (it offends them), this missionary preaches Jesus from the Quran. The problems are…

1.) The Quran is a demonically inspired heresy. We do no favors to Muslims by appealing to the Quran at all. If anything we are sending them a conflicting message. In order for Muslims to be saved, they must repent of their heresy and be converted, and the method that God has ordained for that to happen is through “the foolishness of preaching”, ie. the Bible.

2.) The Jesus of the Quran is a worthless Jesus. He can’t save anyone. He is merely a human prophet who had his real teachings corrupted by the early church.

Joey, your errors are quite common today. They are built upon the idea that our gospel must not offend false religions. The problem is that the gospel is “a rock of offense to those who are perishing”. It’s not that we are purposely offensive, it’s just the nature of the dividing sword.

In fact, that would be a good test to see if the gospel you are preaching is the true gospel. Does it offend false religionists? If not, then it’s probably a false gospel. (I think Jesus and His Apostles offended a few people in their day.)

I have had much interaction with Muslims in my life. While serving as a chaplain in the USAF I spent two weeks with an Imam and went to their mosque to take pictures and speak with their leaders. While serving as a chaplain in The Methodist Hospital in Houston, I was in contact with several Imams as wells as Muslim patients, I also attended an Interfaith Symposium with a Rabbi, an Imam, several liberal theologians and a Catholic Priest. Throughout all of our conversations, they were more interested in inclusive language and a vague sense of what was literal and absolute. Therefore speaking to them on theologically inerrant, Biblical, and Christocentric terms as to the way of Salvation, living a Spiritual and Holy Life, and understanding a worldview that encompassed socio/politico/religous paradigms wrapped in Christian thought and Faith was simply “in error” for them and they would turn you off.

So what Puritan Lad said is absolutely correct. Because Allah is like Baal, Satanic and vain idolatry, we should simply proclaim a message that calls for repentance of these things and the embrace of Christ who is Savior. Because Jesus is viewed as simply a man in the Quran, then we should not use it because it gives credibility to its authority.

Elijah never debated with the Prophets of Baal, he called them to repentance and then demonstrated their error by calling fire down from heaven and destroying them. I don’t think God is calling us to destroy Muslims today, as in the days of old. He calls us to love our enemies by proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ to a lost and dyig world bent on its own doctrines of death, principalities and powers of the air.

puritan lad and healthsense, thank you so much for your comments in response to my comments. one thing i’d like to correct though would be that my “errors” come out of a mindset that wouldn’t want to offend false religions. thats not true of what i was trying to say and how i feel. i don’t give an f about false religions! i do care deeply about communicating the gospel in ways that people hear it. i do think that its a little irresponsible to equate that if the gospel is offense, then its true preaching of the gospel. we shouldn’t be hoping for the offense, we should be hoping for the cross to be the power of god to them. though we differ on how to share the amazing treasure of jesus christ to muslims, i really enjoy this blog, so keep bringing it! i really appreciate your tenacity for the truth of god and his exaltation!!